Uffizi:
Osteria Del Porcellino

Via Val di Lamona, 7-9r
,
Phone: 055.264148

Reviewed by: KenC from MA, review #931

When: 2004

Enjoy a fabulous lunch in a relaxed atmosphere--highly recommended!

Osteria Del Porcellino is located in the straw market down the street from Ponte Vecchio and filled with locals—a good sign. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch in a relaxed atmosphere on two occasions—highly recommended.
Website

Reviewed by: lkmaloney from PA, review #877

When: 2004

Difficult to find,one waiter for an entire room of tables, the food was good but we had food just as good other places without the frustration!

Directions: Near Mercato Nuovo

We made a last minute reservation for Osteria del Porcellino based on a review in Rick Steves' book. Because it was a Sunday night, many places were closed. The location appealed to us because we were staying on the Oltrarno and we didn't want to walk too far. As it turned out we did quite a bit of walking because we couldn't find the street. We finally asked a waiter at another restaurant who pointed us in the right direction. It's located near the Mercato Nuovo, but really tucked away.

Once we were seated, it soon became obvious that there was only one waiter for the inside room of the restaurant which had at least twenty tables. It took more than a half an hour to get a couple of glasses of wine. When our crostini arrived, which was delicious, we ate every crumb in fear that dinner wasn't going to arrive until midnight. We knew we weren't just being impatient Americans, because the Italian man sitting at the table next to us lost patience also. He seemed to know the waiter and some of the other people in the restaurant, and at one point he got up and told the American woman he was dining with that he was going to find out what was going on. We were amazed by the fact that when people came to the door of the osteria, if a table had opened up, they would whisk them in and seat them, despite the fact that they couldn't provide service for all the people already seated. The same waiter who had to take care of the entire room would rush over to empty tables and clear and reset them for more unsuspecting diners. My husband commented that this was a restaurant for 'real' slow travelers. Possibly we hit a freak night when their staff had all come down with the plague or something, but when we finally left, feeling much older, we agreed that this was the only dining experience we had in Italy that we wouldn't repeat.

This review is the opinion of a Slow Travel member and not of slowtrav.com.